Introductory Physics: What to Expect

Students usually take physics as part of a career program with little clue as to why they are taking physics or, more importantly, what physics is and how to approach it. The expectations of the students and of their instructors are often very different. This site will hopefully address many of those differences.

This site was originally designed to help students enrolled in an introductory physics course. Some of the links which have been added are aimed at the sophisticated student or are designed to offer historical perspective or academic distance to instructors.

Lesson Sketches


Tests? Grades? Should I be worried?


GALILEO & KINEMATICS  THE NEWTONIAN WORLD VIEW  A SHORT HISTORY OF ATOMIC PHYSICS

Explaining Quantum Mechanics?  Accepting Quantum Mechanics


Self evident truths often yield paradoxes: Newtonian Determinism vs Free Will  The Objective Existence of a Universal Quantum Mechanical State?

What is Physics?  Operational Definitions  Science and Religion

some conceptual exercises